Compress PDF to 1 MB

How to get a PDF under 1 MB

1. Drop your PDF on the box above. The target is already set to Under 1 MB.
2. Click Compress. FilesStay tries a gentle setting first and only gets stricter if the file is still too big.
3. Read the result line: it shows the final size in KB and bytes, and the image setting it settled on.
4. Download the copy (it ends in -compressed.pdf) and open it to check it before you submit it.

Where the 1 MB limit comes up

1 MB is a common cap on application portals, insurance and claim forms, school and course uploads, and some online banking or government sites. It is also a polite size for an email attachment that someone will open on a phone.

What usually fits in 1 MB?

• Scanned documents of up to a few dozen pages usually fit with text that is still easy to read.
• PDFs made from phone photos shrink a lot, because each photo is often several megabytes on its own.
• Text documents exported from Word or Google Docs are often already under 1 MB.
• Long scans or brochures with large embedded fonts may not fit. Fonts and text are not recompressed, so if they make up most of the file, there is little to squeeze.

We aim for under 1,000,000 bytes, so the file passes whether the site counts a megabyte as 1,000,000 or 1,048,576 bytes.

If it is still over 1 MB

• Remove blank or unneeded pages with Remove pages, then compress again.
• Split a long file into two uploads with Split PDF, if the form accepts more than one file.
• If the limit is stricter, try under 500 KB or under 200 KB.

Compression happens in this browser tab. Your PDF is not uploaded, there is no account, and no daily limit.